Over the past few years, the video game market has changed dramatically. In the past, the market was dominated by players like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, but the proliferation of smartphones has turned the industry on its heels. While there are still millions of consumers who are willing to buy $60 games for a traditional gaming console, the majority of consumers are satisfied with cheap or even free games on their mobile devices. But why limit your gaming experience to your phone when you could play those same titles on a large screen TV?

Enter GameStick – an upcoming Android-powered gaming system for your TV that’s not much bigger than your USB flash drive. The GameStick project has been in development for over a year, but the developers are hoping to raise $100,000 in the next 30 days in an effort to finance the manufacturing process and get the product into the hands of consumers. In a few short hours, GameStick has already managed to secure $25,000. Those who back the GameStick project for $69 or more are promised a GameStick (console + controller) bundle.

Ouya may be a step ahead of GameStick, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little competition in this new segment. We wouldn’t be surprised at all if other players like Roku didn’t jump into the segment if Ouya and GameStick prove that there’s enough consumer appetite to make a profit.

Currently, GameStick is expected to launch in April. More details about the new Kickstarter project, check out the videos below.

As a parent, I could easily see purchasing something like this for when I take the kids on the road or on vacation. Heck they could plug this into a portable TV in the car or in the hotel TV. I hope they thought of pairing controllers. This could have a decent hit if they market it right

Yeah, that Xbox 360 sure is “maul[ing] this ouyada yada and failstick”. Feel free to come back when you have something intelligent to say. Until then, I wish you the best of luck in Call of Halo: Modern Covert Battlefield Ops 2.

Smartphones are dominating hand helds and are carving out a newer market of casual gamers. The gamers that we have known, will absolutely stick with known consoles with games that have significantly higher production value. Casual, cheap smartphone games WILL be mauled in the more serious, higher expectation home console market.

I’ll have to agree that mobile games are succesful at selling and that’s no surprise because of the low prices they have. The real question is if those high end mobile games are very proffitable which I think they should be since so many people are getting them.

Id be willing to give this a try if and when it comes out. I think that a handheld device is long over due. The psp was the last handheld gaming device I=owned and the only reason I had bought one was for the homebrew dev.

It IS considerably more portable than most other consoles though. It may not be truly independently portable, but it’s certainly pocket-sized with quick and easy setup/teardown for carrying with you on-the-go to game at a friend’s house.

Will this stick, the other “Android on a stick”, or the Ouya console run full versions of Android? Put another way, will they have access to the full Google play store? If so, doesn’t this mark the end of Google TV? Why would I choose Google TV when I could just as easily and cheaply get the full Android experience on my TV with a stick or Ouya?

One of the hallmarks of the Google TV experience is supposed to be full cable/satellite receiver integration, but I think even fewer people than than the handful of people who have bought Google TVs are using the complete experience. I’m personally just using my Google TV to play video files over my network, watch Netflix, and play Pandora, so I’m in a similar situation of just wanting a simple Android stick it can plug into the back of my TV and use it in the same fashion that I do on my phone and tablet.

I’ve read that Ouya will not be running full Android out of the box but that’s not to say a Dev couldn’t hack it to do so. The main issue with doing something like that is I don’t think these systems have all the hardware necessary to run full blown Android and games at the capacity we would want. Though Ouya is using a Tegra 3 chip

for devices like ouya and google tv to explode in the consumer market, they have to combine perfectly as peoples media, gaming and web centers and not simply do one or the other.

i’ve recently purchased a sub-$100 rooted and hackable HTPC which runs android out of the box, has ethernet in, hdmi out, 4 usb slots. the box is already optimized with a stable version of xbmc and makes for a fantastic media server/streamer. on top of that you can surf the web, use tablet optimized apps on the TV and even play games by hooking up existing game pad controllers and/or other bluetooth/wifi accessories. granted its not consumer-friendly but the flexibility it provides is far more useful to an android power user than these single purpose devices.

Honestly I think these are great at one side of things because it introduces what could be a very inexpensive gaming platform, and you don’t need to start your own giant gaming company to get your game produced and out there. a TV Based Console with Indie Support? That’s awesome!

Having a secondary Option to Ouya? That’s even better! This doesn’t limit us to what the Ouya has and means that new evolutions of these “consoles” will come out with newer, better, and faster hardware for better and better games.

My only real fear with these devices is that they might lock out the play store in favor of their own digital distribution center.

Under-powered in comparison it seems. Real winner would merge Chrome OS & Android into a stick / box with decent hardware to boot. Hell I’ll take Samsung’s new CPU please…the one in the new Chromebook. It flies!

I am not sure what these type of “consoles” will bring to the gaming market. Most of the people that are happy with gaming on a mobile device could care less about a bigger screen. All of the big screen people most likely own one of the other major consoles and demand more performance, graphic output, sound quality etc. than these devices look like they are able to put out.

I would love to see one of these devices in person, but it’s hard to justify the cost when I already have an Xbox 360, a 3DS, a computer and two Android phones. I do wish the company the best of luck and hope that people out there really do want something like this.

I like the concept, but I hope Google realizes that Google TV has a lot more potential to it than just being a smart tv alternative. The issue I see with these competing gaming systems is that developers will have to stretch themselves this to make sure their games are compatible with each device. They do it already with Android, but at least they can manage everything through the Play Store and not have to worry about distribution.

I recently scored a MOGA controller for free and have been hooking up my Tablet to my TV via mHDMI. Playing on the big screen is a much nicer experience, but there’s still not a whole lot of games in the Play store that benefit from a controller. Devs will have to start giving them better support if devices like this and the MOGA are really going to take off.

This device is useless for me, but to each their own. I can hook both my Gnex and T-Infinity up to the TV via HDMI in seconds. I have my Bluetooth Nyko pro gamepad hooked up and I am rolling with the full Android experience + a full set of emulators and games. I roll with my select library of NES, SNES, SEGA, and N64 games. Android consoles are doomed if they plan on releasing this anytime near the new Xbox & PS4 releases… unless they can future-proof it by being the first with the next gen processors (Tegra 4) and some unique form of free online play.

his device is useless for me, but to each their own. I can hook both my Gnex and T-Infinity up to the TV via HDMI in seconds. I have my Bluetooth Nyko pro gamepad hooked up and I am rolling with the full Android experience + a full set of emulators and games. I roll with my select library of NES, SNES, SEGA, and N64 games. Android consoles are doomed if they plan on releasing this anytime near the new Xbox & PS4 releases… unless they can future-proof it by being the first with the next gen processors (Tegra 4) and some unique form of free online play.

So now that there are two major Android gaming models to be available soon. The question is which will Google acqui-hire first, OUYA or GameStick for their Google TV Franchise/Nexus Q successor? I mean you can’t tell me Google isn’t watching all of this thinking this is their ticket into the video game industry.

Cool idea, but like some people mentioned above there are some challenges. One thing that I didn’t like hearing after watching their video is when one of the founders said that games shouldn’t be played on consoles that cost 400-500 dollars. I hope he was just exaggerating and not actually projecting their sense of the market. Xbox and Wii both can be found between 100-200 bucks for the basic version, and PS3 doesn’t cost too much either. Another challenge is their user case is limited. They advocate for their pocket sized machine being portable. This sounds like a portable console that you can take to your friend’s house or on the road. The problem is, if you need to take this to your friend’s place, your friend has to have their controller… but to have the controller (ideally) you’d have the console. If you are on the road, other options like a HDMI hookup + game pad can easily satisfy any Android phone user’s gaming needs in a hotel that has HDTVs.

I think 2 things will make this project a big hit. 1) pack it with the best of the best hardware. It doesn’t have to have the most expensive things, but it needs to have great hardware that will ensure it can play the games that are 2-3 years into the future. 2) it needs EXCLUSIVE games and partnerships with well known game studios. This is the one of the few ways (if not the only) for them to stand out from the competitors. If they do want to make it into a lot of people’s tv’s, they need great content. It’s more clear than ever that consoles are mere delivery methods for great content (ie. the Halo series on the Xbox). If they have exclusive games that can catch on, people will buy this.

The Platform looks ALOT like the xbox 360 with the squares and the Gradient gray background i could see Microsoft sewing for something like that over i LOVE the idea and im exited to see what devs over at XDA could do with this device.